Senator French cited the case of Nicholas Howard, who recently was convicted under court martial of rape, but did not receive a day of jail time for that crime.

“As a former state prosecutor I was shocked to see no jail time imposed for a rape conviction. Alaska state law would not allow that. Neither should federal law,” said Senator French.

“I am also very concerned that our state crime lab, which has not requested additional lab staff in the past two years, is taking seven months to process DNA evidence. I intend to follow up on this problem as well. But no one, in this day and age, should be convicted of sexual assault and just walk away,” stated Senator French.

To read the letters to Senators Begich and Murkowski click the links below: